Diary updates: Lockable events + 15-min time slots

Appointments can now be booked in for 15-minute time slots. This was a highly requested feature, so we are happy to let you know it is now available!

You can also now lock an event on the desktop diary to stop it from being moved. This is a helpful feature for office managers who are constantly dragging events around the diary and dealing with large amounts of jobs and engineers.

15-minute time slots

Previously the diary was restricted to booking 30-minute time slots, however, you can now book appointments to start or finish at quarter past or quarter to the hour.

Please be aware that this change has not been madeto the drag-and-drop function of the diary. When dragging a diary event, it is only possible to move the event in 30-minute periods. We chose to leave this function as it was, to keep the experience the same for the many users that work with the diary everyday.

In order to book an event at quarter past or quarter to, you will need to use the dropdown menus to select that time - these show when booking or editing a diary event.

Locking a diary event 🔒

Why would I lock an event?

You may wish to lock an event for several reasons. For example, if a customer has zero flexibility in an appointment's time, or if a job needs to be completed by a specific engineer - locking the event would ensure that these could not be changed.

Who can lock events?

Locking events is designed for senior staff within your business who use the desktop diary. Those with the user access role of Office Staff, Financial Office Staff, and Owner/Manager can lock and unlock events on the diary. You cannot lock or unlock events from the mobile diary.

How do I lock an event?

From the Commusoft desktop diary, click the event you wish to lock and then click Edit in the Event details section.

You should see a new dropdown called'Lock status', choose the desired lock status and clickSave.

How can I tell if an event is locked?

If an event is locked, you will see a padlock iconin the top right corner of the event.

If you hover over the event you can see the 'Lock status' listed under advanced options.

Can events be unlocked?

Any user who has access to lock an event, can also unlock an event. To unlock an event, set the lock status back to 'No lock'.

Types of lock status

There are 4 ways in which an event can be locked:

Lock to engineer

An event that has been locked to engineer cannot be moved to another engineer, but can still be moved to a different date and time slot.

Lock to date and time

This restricts an event to its current date and time slot in the diary. If the event is dragged to a new time slot on the diary, it will return to its original position. However, this event can still be moved to a different engineer, as long as the date and time of the event remains the same.

Lock to date, time and engineer

This is a combination of both previous statuses. This restricts an event to both the engineer and the date and time, meaning the scheduling of this appointment cannot be changed at all without being first unlocked.

Lock to service window

If you have service windows set up, you can choose to lock an event to the service window that it currently sits within. This will allow you to change the time or engineer, as long as you do not move the event outside of its current service window.

Locked events on mobile

If an engineer attempts to edit a locked event from their phone, they will notice a message informing them that the event has been locked and they will be blocked from making changes. If the event has only been locked to the engineer and not to date, time, or service window, the engineer will still be able to edit the appointment time from their phone.

It is not possible to lock or unlock an event from the mobile diary and we do not intend to add this function, which will remain reserved for desktop users.

To ensure that lockable events work correctly and there are no syncing issues, we require you to update your users' apps to the latest version.

The most recent version of both apps (as of publishing) are:

iOS v1.73

Android v2.93

We highly recommend that your engineers update their app whenever a new update is available. This will keep Commusoft running smoothly across everyones' devices.

Intelligent scheduling

On a related note, we will be releasing our intelligent scheduling feature in the not-so-distant future, which will bring automated route optimisation to Commusoft. Lockable events is a supporting feature to intelligent scheduling, as it provides a way to keep certain jobs from being moved by the scheduling system. To learn more about intelligent scheduling and to register your interest, click here.

We hope these new features will provide you with useful new functionality in Commusoft. Should you have any issues, please contact support at support@commusoft.co.uk